China’s COVID-19 cases have become “impossible” to track, the country’s top health body said yesterday, with officials warning that cases are rising rapidly in Beijing after the Chinese government abruptly abandoned its “zero COVID-19” policy.
Beijing’s move to scrap mass testing and quarantines after nearly three years of attempting to stamp out the virus has led to a drop in officially reported infections, which last month hit an all-time high.
However, those numbers no longer reflect reality because testing is no longer required for much of the country, the Chinese National Health Commission said in a statement.
Photo: Bloomberg
“Many asymptomatic people are no longer participating in nucleic acid testing, so it is impossible to accurately grasp the actual number of asymptomatic infected people,” the commission said.
The statement came after Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan (孫春蘭) said new infections in the capital were “rapidly growing.”
Chinese leaders are determined to press ahead even though the country is facing a surge in cases that experts fear it is ill-equipped to manage. Millions of vulnerable older people are still not fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and underfunded hospitals lack the resources to deal with an influx of infected patients.
Photo: REUTERS
Authorities said they would begin allowing vulnerable people, including those aged 60 or older, to receive a second COVID-19 vaccine booster six months after their first.
A line of about 50 people stretched out the door of a fever clinic in Beijing yesterday, with multiple residents saying they were infected with COVID-19.
“Basically, if we are lining up here, we are all infected. We would not come here if we weren’t,” one person waiting in line said. “I’m here with a senior member of my family, he’s had a fever for nearly 10 days in a row now, so we are coming to do a checkup on him.”
Restaurants, shops and parks are allowed to reopen, but residents are not finding the path to living with the virus straightforward.
Many symptomatic cases have opted to self-medicate at home, while others are staying in to protect themselves from getting infected.
Businesses are also struggling as COVID-19 rips through the population and hits their staffing. As a result, the capital’s streets are largely empty.
“Basically I follow the requirements of the Beijing government, that the elderly should stay home and go out as little as possible,” said one resident in his 80s who declined to give his name.
He said he was not too worried because he thought that the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 was mild, but added that “there shouldn’t be complete relaxation and freedom.”
“If we are dead, how can we be free, right?” he said.
People have complained of sold-out cold medicines and long lines at pharmacies, while Baidu Inc (百度) said that Internet searches for fever-reducing ibuprofen had risen 430 percent over the past week.
Soaring demand for at-home COVID-19 tests and medications has created a black market with astronomical prices, while buyers resort to sourcing the goods from “dealers” whose contacts are being passed around WeChat groups.
Authorities are cracking down, with market regulators hitting one business in Beijing with a 300,000 yuan (US$43,166) fine for selling overpriced test kits, the Beijing News reported on Tuesday.
In a sea change for a country where COVID-19 infection was once taboo and recovered patients faced discrimination, people are now taking to social media to show off their test results and give detailed descriptions of their experiences while infected.
A Beijing resident in his 50s said: “I think everyone has got used to it. They have moved on... I don’t think people are that fragile.”
CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT: A new committee would investigate a backlog of US weapons sales to Taiwan, said its chairman, US Representative Mike Gallagher The US should formally recognize Taiwan as an independent nation, and end its outdated and counterproductive “one China” policy, US Representative Tom Tiffany and 18 other US lawmakers wrote in a petition. “It is time to change the status quo and recognize the reality denied by the US government for decades: Taiwan is an independent nation,” Tiffany told the Epoch Times. “As our long-standing and valued partner, correctly acknowledging their independence from communist China is long overdue.” The resolution also asks the administration of US President Joe Biden to support Taiwan’s membership in international organizations and to negotiate a bilateral free-trade
The Pentagon is preparing for US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy to visit Taiwan later this year, Punchbowl News reported on Monday, citing an official directly involved in the talks. US administration officials anticipate McCarthy would visit Taiwan some time in the spring, the report said. McCarthy had previously pledged to visit Taiwan if he became House speaker. He was elected speaker earlier this month. He had also said that he would have liked to join then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s delegation when she visited Taiwan in August last year. Pelosi’s 19-hour visit to Taipei marked the first time in 25 years
Taiwan’s Chou Chieh-yu (周婕妤) was crowned the Kamui WPA Women’s World 9-Ball Champion after shutting out British pool titan Allison Fisher 9-0 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the organizers said on Sunday. Following the championship win at Harrah’s Resort and Casino Atlantic City, Chou pocketed US$30,000 and became the first female competitor to hold both the 9-ball and 10-ball world titles since Briton Kelly Fisher in 2012. Chou, 36, won the Predator World Women’s 10-Ball Championship in Austria in September last year after clinching a silver medal at last year’s World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, in July. “I’m very excited and it’s like
JOINT OPERATIONS: Participating in the IMET program, which offers professional training and education to military personnel, would boost Taiwan’s defense capabilities The US government is appropriating funding to help Taiwan participate in its International Military Education & Training (IMET) program to enhance interoperability and capabilities for joint operations of the Taiwanse and US militaries. The funding for Taiwan’s participation in the program is mentioned in the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2023, a US$1.7 trillion spending bill funding the US federal government for the fiscal year 2023. It covers funding for military support for Ukraine, defense spending and regions affected by natural disasters. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that IMET is an important US